Chapter 34

Emergency lights flashed in the accelerator, boots stomped down the hall, and occasionally peered into the viewing room. The first few groups came from Team Plasma, with white uniforms marked with their distinctive emblem. Yet this time, Quinn was ready for them. Their minds were open and unprotected, helpless before his manipulation. He showed them an empty room.

"Nothing here. No sign of whatever attacked Bates," one of them said over the radio.

Quinn's antennae twitched, and the little kitten investigating a corner of the room turned to watch. Rose was apparently fascinated by the trainer's Patrat, who Quinn wasn't trying to influence. Pokémon had stronger defenses and might even turn hostile if he tried that. As it was, the Patrat kept their distance from the doorway, eyeing the broken lab's three occupants with obvious fear.

"Parking lot? Yes sir!" He broke into a run, vanishing from the room. A few seconds later, the Patrat followed without a word.

"I have been somewhere like this before," Cedrin said. The other Celebi floated near the shattered viewport, through to the collider beyond. The priceless hardware was now melted and shattered beyond repair, with little suggesting its original purpose. "The day my mother experimented on me. Told me one day I would be strong enough to fix everything wrong with the world."

"She was right," Quinn said. "Not that I'm agreeing with her methods. But I'm happy you were there to help. Without you, I think I would've died in that hospital."

He lifted Rose gently from the floor, away from the shards of transparent aluminum and shredded clothes. His clothes—it would probably still smell like his old scent.

The kitten struggled against containment, flying deliberately downward towards danger. She could pull pretty hard when she really wanted to—but not hard enough to stop him from keeping her from harm. "You don't want to touch that, sweetie. It's sharp."

She did want to touch it though, and showed him with a few more seconds of desperate struggling, followed by a defiant glare. "No fair."

"We need to use a phone. My… old self has mine right now, I'm pretty sure. But we can go to my advisor's office. She probably got evacuated by now."

He waited a few more minutes, feeling as minds fled the building one by one. We probably have a short time to get out—the time when no one knows what happened, but before the emergency responders get here. Or worse, more Team Plasma. There were people who wouldn't be so easily distracted with mental tricks. What if they had powerful Pokémon?

"I might need your help if we run into anything dangerous," he said, as they finally left the lab behind. He kept the kitten as close as he could, but in somewhere so strange, Rose wouldn't let herself be carried. She wanted to sniff and poke and land on everything, except the still hot ruin of the security door. "Used too much… getting us here."

"We both did," Cedrin answered, gesturing to his sagging antennae. "We should find somewhere to hide for a while."

"I'll protect you!" Rose floated vertically in the air, tail hanging below her. Maybe she thought it would make her look more intimidating, instead of just more adorable. "I can fight! Mom taught me bubbles last year!"

Quinn urged her forward, one hand in her fur. "I'm sure the bubbles will be very intimidating. But we'll try not fighting, first. Most of the humans and Pokémon who live here are very nice. But there's a few who aren't. The ones in those white uniforms—they're bad. I know everyone else. Most of them were my friends."

Not exactly true—they were acquaintances, anyway. Quinn's human self had never been very good at making lots of friends; most of the ones he had were from school, work, or Avery's circles.

I took her away from all that. One day, he would make that right. Not today. He would have to settle for a little shield of air around them, insulating from the blaring of the alarms.

They reached Professor Sada's office a few floors up, one of the few located in the non-subterranean parts of the building.

Naturally, the emergency lockdown had the door sealed, but that didn't stop them. Even Rose could've found the mechanism through the wall and got it to retract, if he asked. But if she did it, it would probably get melted in the process. Sada wouldn't appreciate that very much.

The professor was inside, hunched over her desk with her laptop in front of her. She stared at the screen there, transfixed by something.

Cedrin squealed, catching Rose by the foreleg and tugging her away from the opening. He withdrew around the outside, looking fearfully through the widening gap in the retracting door. At least until Rose started to struggle, and he had to turn back to hold her.

"Just give me a second to make sure it's safe," he thought to them both, floating through the opening. He kept at about head level, passing walls covered in large posters. Each one showed graphic representations of the proposals from each of her PhD candidates—including his, right by the door. His own face was near the bottom, grinning stupidly.

He resisted the urge to inspect it, or correct some of the errors he saw written on the poster.

Professor Sada looked up, probably following the sound of rushing fluid from the emergency door. Her eyes glazed over him at first, obviously not expecting him. Mythical Pokémon shouldn't even exist, but especially shouldn't be floating into your office during an emergency.

"Sorry about the mess, professor," he said. "I had no idea it was going to end so catastrophically. But in fairness, you did approve my proposal."

The woman didn't scream or draw a Poké Ball to defend herself. He felt no aggression from her, but also no comprehension. She removed her Rotom Phone from a pocket, and held it towards him. "Say again?"

Right, Pokémon. You don't understand me. There was an easy fix, obviously. It was one of the first things he'd figured out after his transformation. "Right, sorry. It's been a long time since I was with someone who couldn't understand." He floated over to the desk, but not within reach. "I'm glad you weren't in the test chamber with us. Things went… a little worse than my proposal predicted."

He felt the woman's shock before she formed words. Sada lowered the phone, then ran her other hand through her wild hair, brushing a few stray strands from her face. Instead of answering, she spun the laptop around on her desk.

She had the facility's security video playing in a few windows. They showed clips of Avery, Baast, and Sirius, along with a slightly younger version of Quinn, fleeing Team Plasma.

"My student speculated there might be… some involvement from Celebi, once we started producing tachyons on our own. But why take interest in her? She's not the one who caused this." She slumped back into her seat, resting her head in her hands. "He's the one you want. But I can't find him, and his girlfriend is leaving without him." She sat up suddenly, leaning across the table towards him. "Please, time traveler—help him. He doesn't deserve to die."

Quinn withdrew by reflex, remaining out of her reach. Not that he feared the professor trying to catch him against his will. But humans were huge, even if they weren't overtly threatening. "Avery didn't leave without me. I'm right there, Professor." He pointed at the screen, where that smaller image of him remained frozen. "Right there."

Outside the office, he caught another glimpse of Rose around the door. She made it halfway in before Cedrin managed to grab her and pull her back. "Not yet! Dad will say when it's safe!"

Sada didn't notice; her attention was much too intensely fixed on Quinn. She looked between him and the image. Did she notice that Celebi was too small? Could humans even tell Pokémon apart? Quinn hadn't been a serious trainer, so didn't know them as well as some. He could've told his own partner from a stranger's Pokémon without a second's hesitation.

"Celebi! Are you…" She pointed at the image, then at him. "Right. You're at a different part of your timeline. Came to rescue that girl, and… returned? Why? Am I in danger?"

He shivered at the thought. He'd fled to this office for help, not even thinking that the professor might be in danger too. "You might be. Hold on." He zipped back to the doorway, waving for the other two to come inside. "I didn't stay last time, I don't know if Plasma come back. Come in, Sada won't hurt you."

They did. Rose first, exploding towards him in a rush of bright pink. She shot into the room, bouncing off one of Sada's display cases, then spinning wildly along the ceiling. The professor tried to watch her, but she was too fast, zipping through the room with the energy only a kitten in a new place could manifest.

Unlike before, Quinn didn't try to stop her. No shards of shattered transparent aluminum for her to stab herself.

Cedrin followed a second later, looking nervous. "You sure about her? This human is… strange. Her thoughts are confusing."

"Positive. She trained me, before." He pointed at the poster, and the dorky photo of himself at the bottom corner. "That was me, there. You can look."

While Cedrin flew off to look, Quinn focused on the emergency door. He hadn't broken it, so he only had to find the right wires meant to activate the mechanism, and…

It descended slowly, heavy metal sliding into waiting gaps in the floor. Quinn locked it for good measure, then turned.

The professor had her phone recording now, occasionally panning it from him to Cedrin to the kitten and back again. "I'm in the BBLEC. We just experienced a serious accident following a failed experiment. These three Pokémon appeared to investigate. This may be a sign that Pokémon are beginning to recognize human potential. Two Celebi on film—it may be the first encounter of its kind ever recorded. And why is that smaller Mew traveling with them?"

Quinn floated back to the desk. "She's my daughter," he said. Not that the camera would hear anything, obviously. "Her name is Rose. I wanted to name her after you, but… it was Mom's choice."

The professor had finally recovered enough to retrieve something else from her desk: a small notebook and a pen. She did nothing threatening with it, though Cedrin still kept his distance. Rose too had enough other things to look at that she hadn't yet focused on the waiting human.

"Celebi really exist. You came because of the pre-causal tachyon experiment. And you brought friends." She scribbled a few notes on her pad, where Quinn couldn't see. But he also didn't particularly care if she wanted to write those things. The facility already had them on video, so… "I'm sorry if you explained this already, Celebi. Do you know what happened to my student? This experiment was his idea. He can tell you more about it than I can."

Quinn laughed. Apparently explaining indirectly had not been successful. But that part wasn't exactly surprising. How often did people become Pokémon, anyway? "I'm Quinn," he told her. "If the radiation hadn't fried the cameras in the viewing room, you would see. I don't know… exactly how long it took, or why it happened. But when the dust settled, I was this."

He landed on the desk in front of her, within reach now. But that was fine: Quinn had nothing to fear from his advisor. "And I have been for a long time. If I remember correctly, Avery and I are in the parking lot about now. Team Plasma is going to try to kill her and capture me. I'll take us back in time… a long way. I can tell you the whole story, but I'd like to borrow a phone first. Could you make a call for me?"

Her mouth fell open. “You’re Quinn? My student… you were the guardian of the forest all this time? Your brilliant ideas, guiding me. You were in disguise?”

He laughed. “Not quite. I was human until today. The experiment changed me. Turns out, there are lots of ways for humans to end up Pokémon. Mine was more… abrupt, than most. But I made it out alright. Now I’m older than you are, professor! Had enough time to start a family, help terraform the early planet, and now I’m on a mission to save an AI… it’s a long story.”

“I’m… not sure I understood all that,” she finally said. “But I’m glad you’re okay.” She shuffled around on her desk, then set the phone down in front of him. “You need my help?”

She navigated them through the ranks of Team Infinity, convincing them that she was indeed the Professor Sada and had some critical information to share about Mythical Pokémon. Eventually she reached someone who claimed to have the authority to deploy resources. Quinn recognized her voice instantly, even from his seat on the desk next to Sada.

She sounded older—like a freshman in college instead of a high-schooler. But he recognized that voice, even if she lacked the venom he remembered from their last conversation.

"You're claiming an encounter with rare Mythical Pokémon," Lane said. "Why don't we start with what you're hoping to learn from us? We won't give you strategies for how to catch them. These Pokémon should only be approached gently, or you risk serious injury."

Quinn had remained more or less silent on the desk for the last few minutes, other than to offer quiet reassurance to his daughter. But now he flew into the air, bobbing up and down next to the headset and calling into it over Sada's voice. The professor turned to stare, but she didn't try to stop him.

"Lane! You're with Team Infinity? Shouldn't you be dead by now?"

The voice went quiet on the other end.

"She can't understand you," Sada said, watching him with sudden hesitation. "That's a human operator. Unless you're trying to prove to her that you're here…"

"It's quite alright, Professor Sada," Lane said, after a pause. Distance shielded her emotions far better than even Avery's mental discipline could. She kept her voice neutral and polite, without a hint of what she might be feeling. "That's Quinn with you, isn't it? The Celebi? Or did he not share his name?"

"It's…" Professor Sada trailed off, expression baffled. "How did you know that?"

"I wouldn't call us friends," Lane replied. "But we are acquainted. Put him on the line, please. He can speak to me directly."

Sada held out the phone, eyes wide. "I already knew this day was going to change everything. Never imagined it would be like this."

Quinn took the phone. Speaking directly to Lane meant no need to justify what he was asking for to the professor, or explain it. That made things much easier. "I know we didn't leave on good terms. If you still hate me—"

The voice on the other end changed. The same voice, except it became a quiet mewling—something the watching Sada wouldn't understand. "That world has been gone a long time, Quinn. I've been here long enough to see how your mate helped preserve the world I grew up in. Or maybe created it—I still don't understand time travel very well. I get in trouble every time I try it."

At that change, Rose floated down from the bookshelf to hover next to Quinn, staring at the phone. "Who's that, Daddy?"

"A cat who can help us," he replied, silently. Though he wouldn't know if those words were true until Lane confirmed them.

"I have three Pokémon here who need to get away from the Blueberry Large Experimental Collider," he said. "Somewhere safe and far away. And maybe if there are other Pokémon around right now… we'd like to live with them for a while. While we figure out what the future is like."

"We call it the present these days," Lane said. "Might take some adjustment for you, I know. But you'll get used to it."

She was still the same mew, despite all this time. Still cynical, and a little bitter. But she hadn't refused. "Can you help us?" he asked. "Team Plasma are here, they've already tried to catch me once. Cedrin and I are exhausted from the jump here. I don't think we can protect ourselves."

It took Lane a little while to answer, long enough that he wondered if she might've hung up. But maybe she was checking things, organizing her assets, or whatever else the leader of a large team had to do.

Finally, she spoke. "I have someone in the area. Where in the building are you?"

"Professor Sada's office," he replied. "Top floor, round room. Has large windows overlooking the grounds. All closed so Plasma wouldn't know we're in here. Are you gonna send the National Guard?"

Feline laughter came over the line. "I'm not the President of Unova!" Lane replied. "No. But I have someone in mind. She won't take long to reach you."

"I'd be grateful if you can help us get my professor out too. I'm worried Team Plasma might try to hurt her, given the way they've acted so far. They'll blame her for the accident."

"Of course. Be ready, it won't take long." The line clicked, then went silent.

Quinn offered the phone back to Professor Sada, who could do little more than stare at him in complete bewilderment. "You don't seem upset. I assume whoever that was agreed to help you?"

He nodded. "And you. I don't think our benefactors are too pleased with the result of the experiment. If you don't mind waiting somewhere safe for a while, that would be good."

She nodded eagerly. "With a Mythical Pokémon who mastered everything I've worked my whole life to achieve? Without a second thought. If you are Quinn, could I pick your brain about temporal dynamics?"

He yawned, stretching both arms wide. "Sure. After a nap. Jumping ten thousand years is exhausting, even with help. I’ll need a break from studying Mew computers…"